automate an installation (.msi)

[shades44]

hello,

I want to automate an installation and what i have is the source code
of the web application and the .msi installation file. By automate i
mean automatically answer whatever input prompts the setup dialog may
have and make it run passively so that i end up with the program
installed (according to predefined settings) without having to sit
through the installation. Now being new at this i considered a few
alternatives, namely editing the msi with ORCA (to see if it was
possible to dictate the course of the installation - by simulating
'yes'/'no' clicks and text input), and i considered just creating a
new setup project in Visual Studios .Net and making a new .msi setup
file out of the source code. The second alternative i guess would mean
that everytime i want to run the installation with different
predefined settings i would have to create a new .msi file.

If creating a new msi is the only way then i will have to create a
setup project and include a merge module in it that is given to me.
What I am unclear about is how to tell what the msi has to know about
the merge module. Is it self sufficient? as in do i include the merge
module in the files (with the project in the solution explorer) and
forget about it or is there more to it than that? any light shed on
this would be appreciated or even any references that would be of
help.

Thank you.

 

[techkate]

As far as your .Net/web app specific quesions, I'm not sure. But, there are command line switches that you can use with .msi's to specify what type of UI to display:

NO UI:
/q
/qn

The Windows Installer SDK Help has a lot more information and more detail.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/msi/setup/command_line_options.asp